No Need for Nielsen Ratings Here

“Here,” in this case, is the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, where staff members received the following email in response to their unsuccessful attempts to change the channel on the televisions at their facility:

Please excuse me for sending this out to your entire group via your listserv, but I was alerted by a member in your group and I wanted to let everyone know that the reason for the change from CNN to FOX.

The reason for the change is that a decision from the current administration administrative officials has requested that all monitors, under our control, on the White Oak Campus, display FOX news.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but I am unable to change any of the monitors to any other news source at this time.

I want my… I want my… I want my MTV…

Let us put aside for a moment the question of why Food and Drug Administration employees have televisions where they work – maybe in the employee lounge, which is plausible – and ask a better question: